Parker: Please, turn off your cell phone or put it out of reach when you drive

Monday

Aug 15, 2016 at 12:01 AM

By Mike Parker / Columnist

I am about to go all parental.

People seem to have little idea how to access serious risks anymore. A prime example is distracted driving — especially texting while driving.

The official U.S. government website for distracted driving (distraction.gov) reports that in 2014, 3,179 people were killed and 431,000 others were injured in accidents involving distracted drivers.

Ten percent of all drivers 15 to 19 years old who were involved in fatal crashes were distracted at the time of the accident. Drivers in their 20’s comprise 23 percent of all drivers in fatal crashes, but this same group furnish 27 percent of all distracted drivers and 38 percent of distracted drivers using cell phones during fatal crashes.

The National Traffic Safety Administration published a report in April of 2013 that concluded: “At any given daylight moment across America, approximately 660,000 drivers are using cell phones or manipulating electronic devices while driving, a number that has held steady since 2010.”

In short, you could meet a distracted driver at nearly any moment you are behind the wheel of your car.

Let’s review a little math. A vehicle traveling at 55 miles per hour is just shy of traveling 81 feet per second. According to distraction.gov, the average time a person sending a text takes his or her eyes off the road is five seconds. In that five seconds, the vehicle will move 405 feet.

At 60 miles per hour, the distance goes to 88 feet per second. At 70 miles per hour, the vehicle is traveling just under 103 feet per second.

Even at slower speeds, the math is scary. A vehicle moving at 45 mph is traveling 66 feet per second. During five seconds of distraction, that vehicle travels 330 feet — more than the length of a football field.

Imagine this scenario: You are driving through a residential neighborhood at the posted speed limit of 35 miles per hour. You look down to read a text and respond — just five seconds. A child darts from behind a parked car and into the path of your vehicle somewhere within those 260 feet. You do not even realize you have hit the child until you hear that sickening thud and feel the bump.

How will you forgive yourself?

Not only will you have that child’s blood on your hands, but you will also be arrested. You see, in North Carolina no driver is allowed to text while driving. In fact, novice drivers — any drivers under age 18 — are forbidden to use a cell phone in hand-held or hands-free mode. Bus drivers in this state are forbidden by law to use a cell phone, whether hand-held or hands-free.

Giving into that distraction when the phone rings or the text alert sounds is so easy. After all, you are just going to look away for a second. In reality, you are looking away much longer. As you ignore the road, your vehicle races blindly through space.

One of my ECU students wrote a narrative paper about one of her friends who died in an accident while texting. Towards the end of her paper, she asked:

“What message was so important that she felt the need to risk her life?”

Of course, we do not think of texting as a risk.

But we should.

When you climb into your vehicle, put that cell phone out of reach or turn it off. If you need to check messages, pull off the road safely, stop the vehicle, and check to your heart’s content. Then put the phone out of reach and safely rejoin traffic.

The life you save may be your own.

Or mine.

Or a child’s.

Mike Parker is a columnist for The Free Press. You can reach him at mparker16@suddenlink.net or in care of this newspaper.